A MOTHER buying shoes for her young son found herself taking her shopping away for free when she was the recipient of a random act of kindness.

North-East footwear store Charles Clinkard had instructed its staff at its stores to choose customers at random and offer them shoes free of charge as a goodwill gesture.

Michelle Bostock, from Catterick Garrison, was in the company's Northallerton store on Saturday when she was one of the shocked recipients of the goodwill gesture.

Susan Chappell, branch manager at Charles Clinkard’s Northallerton store, said: “Michelle came in on Saturday morning to get new shoes for her 11-month-old son Aiden. He was asleep at the time but our supervisor Abby managed to measure his feet and they returned after his nap to have his new shoes fitted.

“The whole family was lovely and it was such a great experience that we decided to offer them the shoes for free.

“Michelle was absolutely over the moon. She couldn’t quite believe it and even cried - happy tears of course. It was such a wonderful feeling to make a customer feel like that.”

The company handed over free shoes across its 32 stores on February 17, for Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Charles Clinkard, managing director, said: “We let staff pick customers to take home their shoes for free and brighten up their day.

“It might seem a bit back to front for a retailer to give things away for free, but we want to look after our customers and make them happy - it’s one of the reasons we’ve been around for more than 90 years.”